Verizon: We Received 320,00 Government Data Requests In 2013

Largest Category Was Result of Subpoenas1/22/2014 12:59 PM Eastern

By: John Eggerton

According to its promised report on government data requests, Verizon received "approximately 320,000 requests for customer information from federal, state or local law enforcement in the United States," in 2013, the company said Wednesday (Jan. 22).

Most of those were for consumer, rather than enterprise (business) customers.

That came less than a week after President Barack Obama pledged to narrow those requests and reform the bulk collection process in the wake of NSA data collection disclosures from leaker Edward Snowden, though he said such data collection was important and would continue.

Calling it the first ever transparency report from a telecom company, Verizon executive vice presidentand general counsel Randal Milch called it a "constructive addition to the ongoing conversation about privacy and public safety."

Verizon says it releases the data only in response to a "valid" law enforcement request or in an emergency involving possible death or serious injury.

The requests were a mix of subpoenas, the largest group at 164,000, from law enforcement; orders from judges (70,000); probable cause warrants (36,000)--including 14,500 for the contents of communications like e-mail or text messages, which Verizon only provides under warrant, and 35,000 for location information, again supplied only with a warrant; emergency requests (85,611, provided on showing of potential danger of death or serious injury); and national security letters (1,000-2,000). The government does not allow Verizon to be more specific than that broad range.